From the author of

From the author of

6: Make Them Work

Speaking of order forms, here's a way to stop a customer's order
dead in its tracks. The customer searched for, found, and is about to order your
product. He reaches the order entry screen and it asks him to fill in the
product name, code, description, and price of the product! Now the customer has
to navigate back to the product pageor even multiple product pagesto
retrieve and record the information. The response? "Fuhgetaboutit! I'm
outta here!"

So invest in a shopping cart software program that keeps track of what the
customer is going to purchase and fills in the product information for him.
These programs can be purchased easily on the web, and some are even free. If
you're not technically adept at installing it on your web store, hire a
programmer for a few hours to do it. But do it!

Another big don't is to ask shoppers to register with their name and
contact information before they can shop in your online store. Would you fill
out a form to enter a store in your neighborhood? Yeah, right.